DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Romney's claims are "fabrication" of Obama record

Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz harshly criticized Mitt Romney in an interview with Hotsheet on Thursday, saying Romney's claims about President Obama's foreign policy record are "gratuitous, and incorrect, and an utter mischaracterization and fabrication of President Obama's actual record."

In the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Romney wrote that Mr. Obama has been naive and feckless in dealing with Iran, suggesting that the White House has "offered a case study in botched diplomacy and its potentially horrific costs." He wrote that the sanctions put forth by the Obama administration were delayed and did not do enough, putting Iran "on the threshold of becoming a nuclear power."

Wasserman Schultz responded by saying Romney "has absolutely no foreign policy experience himself" and has "been all over the map on foreign policy," saying "he has flip-flopped" on a number of issues. Mr. Obama, by contrast, "restored our diplomatic reputation it the world, that was decimated by President Bush with his go-it-alone strategy in Iraq." She said the Obama administration's sanctions on Iran were "the most biting sanctions ever passed by the U.N., bringing China and Russia with us."

She also called Republican claims that Mr. Obama does not stand for a strong America "utterly ridiculous," pointing to the killing of Osama bin Laden. The president, she said, has "made sure that the world is safer...while balancing the appropriate amount of military action along with diplomatic relationship building."

Wasserman Schultz also discussed Wednesday night's debate, saying in reference to Rick Perry's inability to remember the third federal agency he wants to eliminate that "it's unbelievable that Rick Perry wouldn't know the core of his own agenda."

"You have a remarkably deficient field of Republican candidates for president, and that was just one more example," she said.

She also said she was "very much bothered" by Herman Cain's decision to call House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi "Princess Nancy," calling it another example of the "flawed" GOP field.

The DNC chair spent much of the interview attacking Romney, however, saying Americans need to know "that Mitt Romney would have allowed [the auto] industry to go down" and that Romney "wants to make sure that the wealthiest, most fortunate Americans continue to have the wind at their back."

Asked what question she would ask the GOP candidates at Saturday's CBS News/National Journal Republican debate, Wasserman Schultz said she wants to know why Romney's economic policy "stands on providing more and bigger tax cuts for the wealthy."

"Why does he support turning Medicare into a voucher program and pulling the safety net out from under my seniors?" she asked. "...I want to know why he doesn't care about them and as president why he would pull the rug out from under them."

The Romney campaign shot back in a response sent to CBS News late Thursday.

"The very last thing the Democrats want to do is run against Mitt Romney. That is why they are focused on Mitt Romney and not the economy," said spokeswoman Andrea Saul. "The Democrats are continuing their campaign of deception in their strategy to 'kill Romney.' President Obama's campaign is going to be very interesting to watch, but it's not going to work."